Panasonic GF1 got glowing review from two major review sites

Panasonic GF1 lens and accessories - image by letsgodigital

Dpreview and Photography Blog gives a glowing review to Panasonic GF1, an micro four thirds system camera with interchangeable lens and DSLR quality sensor but only as big as superzoom compact camera.

The reviewers agrees that GF1 implementation is great, they loves the handling, image quality, auto focus speed and the most important is the size. Although a bit expensive especially if we consider the target market for this camera, Panasonic GF1 has been breaking through Amazon.com USA top 10 best seller in DSLR category this week and seems like it is still going strong and it is possibility that Panasonic will have a shortage of supply soon.

Who is this camera actually for?

Although it has interchangeable lens system, it is more likely there will be two kinds of photographer.

One will be using it with prime lenses such as Olympus 17mm f/2.8 and 20mm f/1.7 . This will be likely a more experienced photographer. Although the handling is very dSLR like, but the photographer needs to adapt because the supplied live viewfinder is very small and won’t work well in low lit situation. As a result, LCD screen will be used for composition most of the time.

The other one one will be general consumers that coming from point of shoot. These people will opt the 14-45mm zoom lens because they want the versatility and image stabilization.

However, this camera will be not very suitable for some professional work, especially for sports or events photography, where you need a very responsive camera and longer zoom length. (GF1 is not very balanced when you mount long lenses on it, plus, hi quality telephoto zoom is non-existent for this system yet).

It is great that the camera are successful both in rigorous technical test and also in the sales chart. Canon and Nikon now have a real challenger in beginner dSLR market.